Morning greens: Flea-borne typhus is on the rise in Orange County, residents and cats on notice

KPCC's Molly Peterson on a Gilligan's Island style tour of environmental stories in and affecting Southern California. Named for the Yvor Winters poem: "The slow Pacific swell stirs on the sand/Sleeping to sink away, withdrawing land..."
Follow the blog at @PacificSwell and Molly at @KPCCmolly.

Meanwhile, preserving the state fish has ranchers on edge. And remember when we reported that popular jewelry manufacturers settled with California about the levels of cadmium in their jewelry. Now they are pledging to “self-regulate.” Here’s your Tuesday morning greens.

Flea-borne typhus is on the rise in Orange County. CBS LA reports that Orange County health officials say five cases of flea-borne typhus have cropped up recently. The disease is transported by fleas from cats, opossums and rodents. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and rash. Official urge residents to take steps to eliminate fleas from their homes and pets.

A dispute over the California golden trout, the official state fish, may influence ranchers in the state. Cow grazing options are set to expire this year in parts of the 300,000-acre wilderness next to Sequoia National Park. Now, “the U.S. Forest Service is studying three options: extend the experiment, eliminate grazing on all four allotments or forge an agreement with ranchers eager to run cattle over the rested meadows,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, area golden trout, a candidate for listing as an endangered species, remains threatened by the herds. The conflict has pitted ranchers against activists against the government.

Robots are extracting coolants from old refrigerators. Refrigerators made more than 15 years ago often contain dangerous liquids extremely harmful to the environment. As the New York Times reports, a few companies are going the extra mile to safely remove the coolants by using robotic systems. As the NY Times writes, “Appliance Recycling Centers of America, a company based in Minneapolis with a chain of recycling depots, recently unveiled a 40-foot-tall behemoth that dismantles refrigerators the environmental way, extracting the coolant until only 0.2 percent is left.